Kadavar visited Greece for the second time in their
career, after releasing their amazing second album for two shows in
Thessaloniki and Athens. Along with them, we enjoyed the well-known Greek band,
45Rats and Astray, a fresh new stoner rock band. Kadavar’s retro sound spread
quickly with their first self-titled album and until their second release,
“Abra Kadavar” (released by the almighty Nuclear Blast) they have already been a
must-listen retro band.

Everybody was chilling on Eightball until Astray took
the stage. In 2013, Astray released their first EP and they’ve been composing
their first full-length release since then. They have a clear stoner rock sound
with heavy riffs and an obvious love for classic stoner rock band such as Kyuss
and Corrosion of Conformity. You don’t get the chance to hear new stoner rock
bands without other influences, but Astray was pretty close to that. The
audience warmed just fine and we listened to a fine band with classic roots. We
wish them the best and we’re waiting for their first release.

Afterwards, we watched the Athenian 45Rats. Last year,
45Rats released their first full length album, “Electric” and later soon, “GQ”
took their opening track for a promo video with Michael Fassbender! Their sound
could be described as instrumental heavy rock with definite 70’s heavy psych
and progressive influences. 45Rats was a total fit in this time machine, they
shooked us and everyone could feel the evening’s vibe. They also introduced us to
two new songs that we’ll be able to listen in their upcoming second release,
which we hope to hear from soon.

Eightball was close to full and we were happy to see a
variety of age groups in the audience, waiting for Kadavar… Soon enough the
first tone of “Liquid Dream” sounded with a more heavy feeling and we dived
into Kadavar’s time machine. A lot of bands tend to revive the classic 70’s
bands and sounds, but a few make it to have their personal sound at the same time.
Kadavar is the kind of that exception and their performance proved us that they
actually are professionals. We had the chance to enjoy a full set from both
their releases, along with a brand new blast song named “Into the night”.

The impressive thing with their performance was the
balanced sound, especially between their rhythm section. Drums were extremely
heavy and powerful (Tiger didn’t stop head banging in the whole live!) while
bass guitar was grooving in a more steady way. At the same time guitar had many
amazing solos and riffs at a very skilful level. A characteristic moment of
this description was their beloved “Black Sun”. For an hour and a half Kadavar
were endlessly grooving, Eightball went crazy! Soon after their typical
closing, they returned and treated us with “Creature of the Demon” and “Purple
Sage” for encore and it was just the right thing… It was definitely a gig that
the audience loved and that they’ll remember. Kadavar merged their unique cool
sound with a retro performance. What makes them so special is that they don’t
just cover usual 70’s sounds, they transform them into something new and
personal and that was exactly what their performance was about!